In the fields of molecular biology and biochemistry, as well as in the diagnosis of diseases, nucleic acid hybridization has become a powerful tool for the detection, isolation, and analysis of specific oligonucleotide sequences. Typically, such hybridization assays utilize an oligodeoxynucleotide probe that has been immobilized on a solid support; as for example in the reverse dot blot procedure (Saiki, R. K., Walsh, P. S., Levenson, C. H., and Erlich, H. A. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA 86, 6230). More recently, arrays of immobilized DNA probes attached to a solid surface have been developed for sequencing by hybridization (SBH) (Drmanac, R., Labat, I., Brukner, I., and Crkvenjakov, R. (1989) Genomics, 4, 114-128), (Strezoska, Z., Paunesku, T., Radosavljevic, D., Labat, I., Drmanac, R., and Crkvenjakov, R. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 88, 10089-10093). SBH uses an ordered array of immobilized oligodeoxynucleotides on a solid support. A sample of unknown DNA is applied to the array, and the hybridization pattern is observed and analyzed to produce many short bits of sequence information simultaneously. An enhanced version of SBH, termed positional SBH (PSBH), has been developed which uses duplex probes containing single-stranded 3'- or 5'-overhangs. (Broude, N. E., Sano, T., Smith, C. L., and Cantor, C. R. (1994) Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA, 91, 3072-3076). It is now possible to combine a PSBH capture approach with conventional Sanger sequencing to produce sequencing ladders detectable, for example by gel electrophoresis (Fu, D., Broude, N. E., Koster, H., Smith, C. L., and Cantor, C. R. (1995) Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA, 92, 10162-10166).
For the arrays utilized in these schemes, there are a number of criteria which must be met for successful performance. For example, the immobilized DNA must be stable and not desorb during hybridization, washing, or analysis. In addition, the density of the immobilized oligodeoxynucleotide must be sufficient for the ensuing analyses. However, there must be minimal non-specific binding of DNA to the surface. In addition, the immobilization process should not interfere with the ability of immobilized probes to hybridize. For the majority of applications, it is best for only one point of the DNA to be immobilized, ideally a terminus.
In recent years, a number of methods for the covalent immobilization of DNA to solid supports have been developed which attempt to meet all the criteria listed above. For example, appropriately modified DNA has been covalently attached to flat surfaces functionalized with amino acids, (Running, J. A., and Urdea, M. S. (1990) Biotechniques, 8, 276-277), (Newton, C. R., et al., (1993) Nucl. Acids. Res., 21, 1155-1162.), (Nikiforov, T. T., and Rogers, Y. H. (1995) Anal Biochem., 227, 201-209) carboxyl groups, (Zhang, Y., et al., (1991) Nucl. Acids Res., 19, 3929-3933), epoxy groups (Lamture, J. B., et al., (1994) Nucl. Acids Res. 22, 2121-2125), (Eggers, M. D., et al., (1994) BioTechniques, 17, 516-524) or amino groups (Rasmussen, S. R., et al., (1991) Anal. Biochem., 198, 138-142). Although many of these methods were quite successful for their respective applications, when used to link nucleic acids to two-dimensional (flat) supports, the density of the immobilized oligodeoxynucleotide is often insufficient for the ensuing analyses (Lamture, J. B., et al., (1994) Nucl. Acids Res. 22, 2121-2125, Eggers, M. D., et al., (1994) BioTechniques, 17, 516-524).